lose their luggage
By JOE LINDSLEY
Sports Writer
The 30 mile-per-hour wind the Notre Dame women's golf team endured during practice rounds before the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational proved to be just the beginning of an odd string of events.
Monday's two rounds were not played due to torrential rain at the Alvamar Golf Course in Lawrence, Kan., the Irish almost missed their plane home, and the airline lost their luggage in Detroit.
In fact, Notre Dame did not even know that it finished in ninth place after the only round of play on Tuesday in a field of 17 teams until late Tuesday because the team was in such a rush to make their flight. The Irish finished with a 18-hole total of 325, and ended up 19 strokes behind Oklahoma, the tournament champion.
"We turned in our scores and had to run away from the course because we were going to miss our plane," said junior Terri Taibl, who finished in 21st place with a score of 79 for Tuesday's 18 holes.
Sophomore Shannon Byrne had Notre Dame's best performance, and her best round this fall, shooting a six-over-par 78, and finishing tied for 14th.
Overall, though, the Irish had some struggles.
"It was a little difficult to get in the right frame of mind because the first 36 holes were rained out," Taibl said. "So I think that had a little bit of an effect on everyone."
Freshman Karen Lotta, who has consistently performed well for the Irish, believes that spending Monday sitting in a hotel room instead of playing golf had a negative effect on Tuesday's performances. Lotta finished last for the Irish after a round of 86 that put her in 65th place.
"It was just frustrating that we went all the way over [to Lawrence] for only one round," said Lotta. "It was hard to come back [Tuesday] and concentrate, knowing that the tournament was only 18 holes. The one round thing didn't work."
According to Lotta, the competition was average, and not nearly as tough as it had been during last week's Shoot-out at the Legends Tournament in Franklin, Ind. Last week the Irish finished last in a field of 19.
"Everyone probably thinks they could have played better," Taibl said. "Usually if you have a bad round, you have two more to come back and play well and erase that, but we didn't have the chance to do that."
Senior Kristin McMurtrie, who finished first for the Irish last week, shot a score of 84 to tie for 48th overall with sophomore teammate Rebecca Rogers.
While the Irish are not entirely pleased with their play, they are also angry about something else.
"We almost missed our plane [and then] our luggage got lost in Detroit," Lotta said. "We are a little mad about that one."
Notre Dame is still maintaining its optimistic outlook.
"Ninth place isn't bad," said Taibl. "We'll just look to improve in the next tournament."
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, October 17, 2001
